Cycling friendly city
While the city centre is easily walkable; bikes are an excellent alternative for travelling short/medium distances when away from the centre or for exploring green areas around VIlnius.
BIke Sharing: a consolidated reality in Vilnius, thanks to its orange bikes and the app “Cyclocity Vilnius”, available for download both for Android and Iphone.
A single 30-minute journey is available for 50 cents or a 3-day ticket can be chosen for 2.90 euro, granting unlimited 30 minute journeys during that time period. Long term service costs 19.90 euro and grants unlimited 30 minutes journey for a year; for youth 14-26 a 5 euro discount is also available. It’s worth mentioning that, usually, 30 minutes are more than enough to travel to all points of interest in the city or get closer to the centre if you are residing on the outskirts .
“Cyclocity Vilnius” pick up spots and available bicycles can be consulted in real time at https://www.cyclocity.lt/en/mapping
While not perfectly consistent, a good network of Cycle Paths is present in the city, making cycling a generally positive experience, especially when compared with the situation in other European Capitals. The city of Vilnius is making constant efforts to improve its cycling paths and new ones are currently being constructed. A detailed map of all the paths can be seen here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1UADK72MflGRHM-u4obSinRbPlZs&ll=54.684494993283685%2C25.26998712491536&z=14 It also shows locations of the multiple water refilling spots around the city.
Bike Rental
People interested in renting a Bike for a full day or multiple days can find affordable rentals for all kinds of bicycles, starting at 13 euro a day for City byke, 29 for mountain bikes and 39 for electric ones. Velotakas https://velotakas.lt/en/bike-rent/ offers this service and is also accredited to conduct Bike tours in the city and in nature.
Exploring Vilnius and its surrounding by bike
Different Bike routes are available in Vilnius and the surrounding areas, including: easy Round Routes; MTB route and the routes to/around Trakai
The VIlnius tourist office has prepared a map of 5 Round tours, ranging from easy to moderate difficulty, to explore VIlnius by bike; they are colour coded for easy understanding. A physical copy of the map can be taken at Tourist office or being consulted online at: https://velovilnius.lt/en/vilnius-bikemap/city/
MTB Routes
Multiple MTB routes, especially of medium difficulty, can be found around Vilnius and its parks; while physical maps are not available, routes can be viewed at https://velotakas.lt/en/city-mtb-maps/-bike-routes/. It’s recommended to download Komoot APP to avoid getting lost and see suggestions from other users.
Trakai Routes
Those willing to explore the beautiful Trakai by bike will be happy to know that it is possible to reach it from VIlnius by train or with a 35 Km route. Once in Trakai, 3 Bike routes can be followed, with red and blue routes taking you around the lake and the yellow one showing you “Old Trakai”; which was once the capital of Lithuania. Trakai routes can be seens at https://velovilnius.lt/en/blog/marsrutai-trakuose/
Well developed public transport
Public Transport, in Vilnius are managed by “JUDU” and is well developed, offering 4 different options for travel based on your needs:
- Express Bus: recognisable by its green colour and G letter; it has 6 routes useful for covering long distances in short amount of time
- Bus: recognisable by its blue colour and no letter. There are around 90 different bus lane to move comfortably around all of VIlnius’ district
- Nightly bus; Recognisable by its black colour and N letter; from 11pm 3 lanes are maintained to connect to vital part of the city;
- Trolleybus: Recognisable by its red colour. 17 lanes for one of the only 2 trolleybus systems of Lithuania, operating since 1956. Both new and old trolleys are in operation and safety is ensured in all of them.
The Airport is served all day by:Express Bus 3G; Buses 88, 1 and 2; Night buses 88N
All bus lanes, stops and timetables can be checked at: https://www.stops.lt/vilnius/#vilnius/map/en
Ticket options
Contactless tickets
Starting September 2024 physical tickets are no longer sold in Vilnius.Instead, you can directly buy a single use ticket by tapping the validator screen with a bank card or a NFC device. Tickets purchased this way will be valid for 60 minutes and cost 0,90 euro.
E-tickets Apps
M.ticket and Trafi Apps can be used to buy E-ticket, both apps support fast payment from credit cards and charge the same price for tickets.
- M.ticket. the official app from JUDU and the only official e-ticket provider, it’s in Lithuanian and requires a Lithuanian phone number to work.
- Trafi. based on M.tickets, but more accessible for tourists as it’s in english and allows foreign phone numbers. Trafi also has more quality of life features: it provides real time info on traffic and public transport updates, can be used to plan movements, and show bus routes and the closest bus stops.
A standard 30-minutes e-ticket cost 0.65 euro, but different options are available for short terms, daily and long term ticket; they can be checked at: https://judu.lt/en/for-public-transport-passengers/ticket-types-and-prices/
All tickets can also be purchased with a special discount of 50% and 80% for specific groups of people; eligibility can be checked on JUDU website under the FAQ section.
JUDU/Resident card
For €1.50 you can get a travel card that doesn’t require downloading any app, it can be purchased and topped-up at various locations around the city:
- -Customer care Service in Gediminas Ave. 9A; Geležinkelio st. 16 and Konstitucijos pr. 3
- -Maxima and Rimi Supermarkets
- -“Narvesen” and “Lietuvos Spauda” selling locations
A detailed map of JUDU top/up spots can be viewed at https://sisp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=18f2723afd1a45fdbbe173a572f31d1e
E-Tickets bought with a Judu/resident card have the same prices that using M.tickets or Flexi; they can be bought in advance and must be activated at the validation machine on the bus.
Individuals entitled to a special discount should declare it when buying the card and always carry a certificate for the said discount while travelling on public transport.
Electric car
When car travel cannot be avoided, Vilnius also offers multiple Eco-friendly options for charging electric cars and for car sharing.
Charging station
Multiple spots, belonging to different companies, are operating in Vilnius. On the following map it is possible to see their location, how many spots are free, the available plugs and the charging power: https://placetoplug.com/en/charging-stations/Lituania/Comune%20urbano%20di%20Vilnius/Vilnius
Car-Sharing
If you prefer car-sharing three differents companies are operating in the city:
- Spark – A completely electric car-sharing service, offering both Pay-by-minute and daily rental options, starting from 9 cents per minute and 20 euro for day rental; plus around 25 cents per km. On their app it’s possible to see collection points and charging spots around the city; they also allow you to finish your trip at both Kaunas and Vilnius airport with a 2 euro supplement.
- CityBee – Not all their cars are electric but a selection of them is now available, including for electric vans, and they are improving their efforts in this field. Their price starts from 12 cents/minute to 24,99 per day, plus 31 cents/km; no surplus is applied for electrical vehicles. CityBee Electric cars can be charged at IgnitisON”, “ElintaCharge” an “Eleport” fast charging station, providing a nice range of options
Bolt Drive
While they offer a low-cost solution for car-sharing, unfortunately, they do not provide electric vehicles at the moment; however, their taxi service includes some EV cars. Probably their most important service in the city is the electric scooter sharing service. They offer both pay by minutes option (starting at 22 cents per minute), daily passes( 7.9 euro for a total of 60 minutes) and weekly passes (9 euro for 70 minutes, usable within 7 days). Pick-up and parking spots are the same and there are many of them around Vilnius; making Bolt electric scooters a good alternative to car sharing for short distance trips
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